


Nurse's Orders

by LadyOfSnakes



Category: Captain America (Movies), Daredevil (TV), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-07
Updated: 2016-01-07
Packaged: 2018-05-12 11:52:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5665147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyOfSnakes/pseuds/LadyOfSnakes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's almost funny, how Claire kept meeting superheroes. (Except that they were always injured when it happened.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nurse's Orders

_I’m not even supposed to be here today..._

Claire took a five second break to stretch. She closed her eyes and rolled her shoulders and tried not to think about how her internal monologue sounded like a whining convenience store clerk. (She didn’t even particularly _like_ that movie.) They were slammed, so the five seconds was all she could spare.

Really, she didn’t mind covering. _Really._ Amaya had traded shifts with her often enough at her own request. It was just her luck that anytime something really weird happened, it was when she was on duty. Tonight’s special weirdness had been a torrential downpour of frogs. Actual, hopping frogs, courtesy of some kind of magician who could do that, and had been beaten up by the Avengers.

The heroes hadn’t corralled up all the frogs though, and so Claire had spent the evening dealing with car accident victims, slip-and-falls, and a good number of people who had accidentally touched one and came in because they were worried it was poisonous.

After explaining to the fifth distraught old woman that “No, that didn’t look like a reaction to poison, and if it didn’t bite you, there is no venom to worry about” she was just counting down the minutes until the shift ended. Still, she was right there when Doctor Hussain called her over to check in a newcomer. (One who was obviously injured, this time.)

The blond man had been helped into the ER by a black man who kept talking to him, trying to get him to respond to questions, as well as trying to keep a bloodstained towel pressed to the side of his head. After his friend helped him into a chair, she crouched down in front of him. She put on a fresh pair of gloves, then pulled out her penlight and checked the blond’s pupils. Abnormal response, and the man had a stupid grin on his face. Since she didn’t smell alcohol on his breath, she guessed it might be drugs.

“Hello, sir. Can you tell me what your name is?”

“Sam?” He responded, squinting at her, then looking up at the other man.

“You don’t seem sure about that.” Claire looked up at his friend too, “His name isn’t Sam, is it?”

“No.” The black man responded, “I’m Sam. His name is Steve Grant. He got hit on his head pretty hard. I know head wounds can bleed a lot and look worse than they are, but he’s pretty confused. I think it’s a concussion.”

“Hello Sam. I think a concussion is pretty likely. Now let me look at that wound. What did he get hit with?” Claire took hold of the towel and lifted it. The gash on the man’s head was nasty, but it looked like the bleeding had already slowed quite a bit. Ultimately, it was less concerning than the concussion.

Sam shrugged and poked Steve’s shoulder. “What hit you?”

“Dunno. It hit me after I threw my shield.” Steve blinked and turned his head, pulling away from Claire’s hands. “Where’s my shield?”

“Steve, hush. Nat has it,” Sam said, and gave Claire what she assumed was his most reassuring smile.

“Your shield?” That made her pause. It would just be her luck. She took a deep breath and looked closely at “Steve Grant’s” face again. Yeah, he looked familiar. Very familiar. “You’re Captain America.”

“Shh.” Steve said, bringing a finger to his lips and dropping his voice to a whisper. “I’m _undercover_.”

Sam facepalmed, mirroring the emotion in Claire’s soul. This _would_ happen to her.

“Okay, Steve. I won’t tell anyone.” Claire stood and turned to Sam. “This is Captain America, isn’t it?”

“Well, yes.”

“And you’re The Falcon?”

“Yes.” Sam smiled, as if he was pleased to be recognized. His smile quickly faded as she continued to ask questions though.

“Is he high? What did he take?”

“He’s a super soldier and most meds don’t work on him. We’ve got a super painkiller that lasts about fifteen minutes before his body finished metabolizing it. It makes him a little loopy.” Under Claire’s stare, Sam had the dignity to look sheepish. “He’s never used it after a head injury before, so I brought him in. He _should_ be back to normal soon.”

The nurse nodded and glanced down at the intake form that had been handed off to her when she’d been sent to handle them. This was all becoming a bit too familiar for her. Maybe it was her own super power, collecting injured enhanced people. “I’m going to get you into a room so no one recognizes him. If he’s still this out of it in five minutes, I need to tell Dr. Hussain about the drug and who he is.”

If either of the men wanted to argue, they didn’t show it. Claire found them a quiet-if-tiny room and replaced the bloodstained towel with proper bandages. She did roll her eyes slightly when Sam insisted that she not dispose of the towel in the biohazard bin. “Yes, I will break protocol for the Avengers. Can I ask why, though?”

“Don’t want his blood being used to make a bioweapon.” Sam replied.

Well, at least her life still wasn’t quite as weird as the powered people she continued to meet. “Okay. I’ll get you a bag.”

Claire turned back to Steve again and checked his eyes another time. His pupils were responding normally now, which she hoped was a good sign. His color was good, and his eyes seemed more focused as they followed her penlight. “Okay, Steve, how are you feeling?”

“It hurts more than it did, ma’am.” His eyes flicked down to the ID clipped to her scrubs. “Nurse Temple. I think the painkiller has mostly worn off.”

“Well, Dr. Hussain will be in soon to stitch up your cut and she’ll want to give you an anesthetic. Is that going to cause a complication with whatever you took?” Claire was almost filling in the chart, and she fudged the notes a bit to make it seem like the man hadn’t mostly recovered from a concussion in the past ten minutes. “I don’t want to be responsible for us killing an Avenger because we didn’t know about a drug interaction.”

“Bruce... the doctor who developed it said that it wouldn’t.” Steve gave her a sheepish smile. “And I trust him, Nurse Temple.”

“Fine.” She had done a lot worse for people with much less of an honest reputation. And at least Captain America had a friend there who seemed to know what the hell he was doing.

Claire couldn’t keep babysitting them. She wasn’t going to screw up their “undercover” attempt with extra attention. After the doctor was finished with the stitches, though, she managed to slip in again before Steve was discharged. Now that he was cleaned up a bit more, she could recognize his face better. (She’d also looked up some WWII photos from him on her phone.) Yes, he was definitely Captain America. “No effects from the anesthetic?”

“No, Nurse Temple. I didn’t even feel it.”

He smiled at her, and Claire smiled back despite shaking her head. “That’s not usually something to be proud of, Steve. Now take care of yourself.”

“I will, Nurse Temple.”

And she wasn’t even supposed to be there that day. Too bad she couldn’t tell Amaya about it. She'd have to thank her for asking to switch shifts, though.

**********

It was a week later when Claire got a call from Amaya. _“Claire, I know you’re not on until tomorrow but you have to come in.”_

“Why’s that, Amaya? Something wrong?” Well, there went her plans to do laundry this afternoon.

_”You got flowers delivered. Faiza read the card and she’s not letting the rest of us see it.”_

“Really?” Claire hesitated, wondering why anyone would send flowers to her job instead of her apartment. Also, who would be sending her flowers? She hadn’t patched anyone up extracurricularly in a while. “Well, I’ll come by in an hour and pick them up.”

The ER wasn’t that busy, but still an unusual amount of nurses managed to be lurking around when she came in. Amaya even managed to be right behind her when she approached Dr. Hussain. “I hear you have something for me, Faiza.”

“Amaya told you? Good.” Dr. Hussain pulled a small envelope from her lab coat and handed it to her. “We moved the flowers into the break room. They’re very nice.”

“Thanks.” Claire let her friend look over her shoulder as she opened the envelope. It was a simple card with the name of the florist on front, and on the back a handwritten message. _Nurse Temple, Thanks for looking out for me. -Steve_

Under that was a phone number. 

Well.

Claire collected her flowers--it _was_ a very nice arrangement--and went home. She debated for a bit, but decided to call him after she’d made a new number on skype. Maybe meeting Jessica had made her a bit paranoid, but it was a sweet gesture and she wanted to thank him. (And see what he wanted.)

The phone rang twice before he picked up. _”Hello?_

It sounded like him. “Hi. This is Claire Temple.”

_“Oh, hello! I guess my flowers were delivered.”_

“Yes, though I wasn’t working. They called me in to pick them up.”

_“I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to give you more to do. Can I make it up to you?”_

_Smooth-_ she thought, then asked, “How do you want to do that?”

_“We could meet for coffee?”_

Claire hesitated. Every other time she’d been pulled into superhero shit, it was because someone was dying. It was always a crisis. She’d never been _asked_ like this.

“That sounds good, Steve. On one condition.”

_“Yes?”_

“Stop calling me Nurse Temple.”

_“I can do that, Claire.”_

**Author's Note:**

> I really think Steve has a competency kink. Nothing's more attractive than someone who knows exactly what they're doing.
> 
> Dr. Faiza Hussain is Excalibur and Captain Britain in the comics. I figured I'd put her in here. We always need more ladies in the MCU.
> 
> Unbetad, as always. If you see any errors, let me know.


End file.
